has the MALLING of AMERICA ended and the trends back to MAIN Street?

Malls have been on the downtrend since the mid to late 90's. There are a few that still pull in the crowds, but for every one of those there are probably 5 ghost town malls. At least that's what I've been seeing.

I'm not entirely sure what the cause is, but if an anchor store pulls out without a replacement, the mall is on life support and fading fast. If the mall has good freeway or highway access and 4-5 good anchors (and a big movie theatre it will probably still be thriving, but the smaller malls haven't got a chance. I've seen a few of the dead ones converted into call centers and class C office space, which is an ok way to reuse the buildings, but the parking lots are pretty empty.

The trends are headed back to downtown. Urban beats suburbia hands down on the coolness factor. Infilling by renovating derelict buildings is a trendy and also green. Slowly america is remembering what a downtown is and taking it back from the ashes. I've worked in a sizable downtown for 10 years and I've seen a lot of regrowth here over the years. My bosses recently bought a derelict building that's over 100 years old and are transforming it into a very cool work environment for our firm. The neighborhood is still a bit depressed in that area, but hopefully others will do what were doing and bring it back to life as the boards come off the windows.

-Steve G.